Gmail offline – Mac, PC and Chromebook

One of the perks of using the Gmail app is that you can work on it while you don’t have an active internet connection. Here is how you do it on Mac, Chromebook and PC.

To begin with, Gmail stores everything in the cloud and enables you to access your data from any device and if you happen to be working or traveling it’s essential to have access to that data when you’re offline for whatever reason.

Gmail lets you do that to some degree – obviously if you use Gmail offline you won’t be able to do as much as you can when you’re online, but it’s still more than what you can do with other emailing systems.

In order to do this, you will have to install the Gmail offline app and this will enable you to read and reply to emails without having an internet connection. What the app does is that it syncs messages up to the last 30 days and as soon as you get an internet connection, they will be sent.

You can get the app from the Google Webstore. You’ll have to choose the Add to Chrome option. Then it will start downloading and as soon as it’s done you should have a little icon on the top right of the browser window. This app is only available for Google Chrome but you can access the browser on Mac, PC and Chromebooks.

You can launch it by opening a Chrome tab and then clicking on the Apps option. You’ll find the Gmail offline app there and you will have to run it. When it begins to run, it will ask you to select the ‘Allow offline mail’ option and then you will see your Gmail with every message you got before the internet connection was cut up, but with a slightly different design.

Use Gmail offline – Mac, PC and Chromebook

Having everything stored in the cloud is brilliant, as it means that all of your data is available from every device. However, there are times where being able to access content offline is extremely useful, either because of an internet problem or because you’re travelling. For example, if you want to reply to and read your Gmail messages at all times, you really need to be able to get access to your messages offline. While using an email client is one workaround, you lose some of the abilities of Gmail along the way, such as the powerful search and Labels. Fortunately, there’s a different way to work, with the offline version of the service. Installing the Gmail offline Chrome app

Gmail offline, unsurprisingly, supports offline access, meaning you can read your emails, respond to them and search for them without having an internet connection. When you first start it up, Gmail Offline syncs your messages (up to the last 30 days, plus Starred messages) and any actions you’ve done, so that as soon as you get an internet connection again, everything will be successfully completed. Gmail Offline is an app for Google Chrome only, so you have to use that browser, which is available for Mac, Windows and Chromebooks.

Gmail offline chrome app

To install the app, go to the Chrome extension in the Chome Webstore. Click ‘Add to Chrome’ and you’ll be asked if you want to add the app extension to your Chrome browser, so click ‘Add App’. Once you’ve successfully downloaded it, you should see an icon in the top right of your Chrome browser and will be able to see it in the list of extensions under Settings -> Extensions.

Now that you’ve got Gmail offline, you can launch it by opening a new tab in Chrome, clicking ‘Apps’ in the top left corner and going through to Gmail Offline. The first time you run this app you’ll be prompted to turn offline mail on, so select ‘Allow offline mail’ and click Continue. From here you can see your Gmail in a slightly different interface, that doesn’t need to be connected online, with everything there from when your Gmail was last synced up.

Allow offline mail in Gmail settings

Sign into your Gmail account through Google Chrome.

Clickthe gear icon in the right corner of the screen and select Settings.

From the navigation bar, chooseOffline and clickInstall Gmail Offline.

It’s as simple as that really, now you don’t have to worry about losing internet connection when you’re halfway through an email and you can rest assured that as soon as you’re back online, you can hit the ground running.